Liard Hot Springs and Sign Post Forest

~ 07.05.2019 ~

Hello,

this morning the weather was somewhat good again. The sun was shining directly into the car during our breakfast. The perfect day to go to the Liard Hot Springs, which were only about 20 minutes away by car.

On the way there we saw another bear. But this time apparently a young one, because the black bear was still quite small. It ran across the highway when we arrived by car. After that we saw a lot of bisons lying by the roadside, which we took a closer look at on the way back from the hot springs.

The Liard Hot Springs are located in the middle of the forest. A small wooden path led from the parking lot to the hot springs. These were the first hot springs I have ever been to. Therefore, the slight smell of eggs, which is caused by sulfur, was a bit unusual at first. The water was about 36°C warm, so very pleasant. And so we were in the water for a while in the middle of the forest in the sunshine.

From there our path continued towards Watson Lake in the northwest. On the way we stopped at the bisons, which had many young ones in their herd, as already mentioned. We also saw three (!) more bears: one who was sitting comfortably on his bottom and cleaning himself. The second one was right next to the road, but on the other side where there was a slope. And the third one was eating on our side of the road and didn't bother when we stopped right next to him.

Before Watson Lake we had to refuel again. This time in a very small village, where the 'gas station attendant' came out personally and took care of refueling for me. And then we crossed the border to the Yukon. So we made it all the way from Vancouver up here to the north! :-) The road went through British Columbia several times afterwards, but now we finally arrived in the Yukon. In the next larger city Watson Lake, we made our first stop. Here is the famous Sign Post Forest, a sign forest in the true sense of the word. Many, especially place signs and license plates, have been nailed to wooden posts by numerous visitors. It was funny to see that about a third of them were German signs. I even found a license plate from my hometown Wesel and Lübeck :-D

Afterwards, we briefly visited the tourist information, which provided us with very good information material about the Yukon. And then it was still three hours to our next campsite, which was right by the lake, still in British Columbia next to the border to the Yukon. Here we also met two other German travelers who were already on their way back from the Yukon. In the evening we also saw a whole moose family on the other side of the lake, unfortunately too far away to see them clearly or take photos.